


Lightning

by thegreyarea



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen, My First Fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 15:09:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21430231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreyarea/pseuds/thegreyarea
Summary: Year 95. In the far North, Sigrun goes on a normal patrol that quickly becomes anything but normal.
Relationships: Sigrun Eide/Mikkel Madsen
Comments: 36
Kudos: 17





	Lightning

**Author's Note:**

> V 1.4 updated 29/12/2019 after some corrections

_September, Year 95, somewhere near Rana, Nordland, Norway._

It was a normal patrol in the end of the Summer.

Sigrun, Agnar, Bjorn and Eike had walked a lot at this point and found almost nothing worthy of note. They saw only one beast, a jumper, feasting on a seagull. Everyone hated jumpers because they were very fast, making them dangerous and hard to kill. But this one didn’t notice them until Agnar put an arrow through it.

“Shouldn’t we call it a day and return home, commander?” He said, putting the recovered arrow back in his quiver.

Sigrun was inclined to agree. The days were getting shorter and colder and it would be wise to avoid walking after nightfall. The weather wasn’t looking good, either. The wind was growing stronger and there was a grey wall of clouds coming from the North. A storm will be upon them in a few hours. “We’ll walk to that edge, and then we go back.”

They trekked for a few minutes and could finally see the Atlantic. Then they saw the ship. Down, where the fjord met the ocean, high waves battered a large hull, half turned against the rocks.

Sigrun pointed at the ship. “How has something of that size reached the coast without anyone noticing?”

“Maybe because we just had a whole week of dense fog, with no patrols and all ships moored?” Eike said, taking hold of the binoculars. “Only those big Icelandic vessels could possibly sail safely, and there are few of them this far North.”

For a while Eike looked at the wreck. When she passed the binoculars to Sigrun there was excitement on her face. “Looks like we may have found something worth all this walking!”

Sigrun could understand why she’d say that. It was covered in rust, but the overall layout, with a low profile, lots of antennas, a flat area in the back and what looked like the remains of a gun before the bridge… it all screamed military, some kind of support ship, probably loaded with interesting stuff.

It didn’t look Icelandic. Their navy had ships of that size, but Sigrun saw none of the usual indications or paintings, just some numbers, barely visible on the side. It also looked very old. “Could it be a ship from before the collapse?”

“Maybe. People tell stories about that kind of thing.” Said Eike. Agnar came closer “My grandpa used to talk about how he ran into this kind of thing a couple of times when he was a fisherman. Ships trapped for decades in ice, near the pole, until someday the ice melts and the currents bring them South. The first ship was full of treasures, the second full of corpses, and worse… And it always happened at the end of a hot Summer, like this one.”

Sigrun looked at the coming storm, trying to calculate how much time they had before it arrived. “We still have some time. We have to go down there and check for anything useful.”

Agnar stared at her. He was _not_ happy. “It’s a long way down, there’s only four of us, and it’s getting late.”

Sigrun gave the binoculars back to Eike. “I don’t like it either, but the ship’s already broken. When the storm arrives the bigger waves will probably rip apart what is left of it. Anything valuable, like explosives or weapons, will be totally lost. We can’t afford to wait until tomorrow to come with more people.”

Agnar turned to Eike. “What do you think?”

“Sigrun is right. We should be on our way down already.” Eike replied. “Do you agree, Bjorn?”

“We follow the commander’s orders.”

“I wasn’t talking about disobeying her. I was just saying what I think, something you never seem to do.” Agnar said, looking at Bjorn. Sigrun couldn’t help smiling at the size difference between those two. Agnar was rather small and thin, whereas Bjorn was the biggest man in their village, large and strong. He also wasn’t one to speak much, and so didn’t bother replying.

Sigrun was glad to see the matter solved without the need to intervene. She tried to use the radio to inform the village about their findings and their plan, but there was too much interference. She pondered what to do for a minute. “No way am I going inside a wreck without a backup plan. Agnar, looks like I’ll be granting your wish. You’re going home.” Sigrun said. “Report what we found and that we’re going to check out the ship. If we don’t come back in 4 or 5 hours we may be in trouble, so I expect you to bring help. Understood?”

Agnar looked like he was about to say something but clearly thought better of it. He grabbed his things, saluted Sigrun and left, bow in hand, heading Southeast. Sigrun watched with Eike by her side. He was light and fast, but it would still take 3 hours, at least. Any help would take a very long time to arrive, but it was better to have some prospect of help than none. “He’s a good kid. Will be a good soldier, someday.”

“If he survives that long.” Eike replied.

“You know, sometimes you’re such a pessimist!” Sigrun said, slapping a hand on her shoulder. “You should listen to Mikkel a bit more. He always finds a way to see the half-full glass.”

“I’ll think about it _tomorrow_. Today we must get down, check the ship and go back home.” Eike looked at the steep slope and then back to Sigrun. “It’s a rough way down, even without wind and rain. I’m starting to question if we should do it.”

“Bah! How hard can it be?”

* * *

It was hard,_ really_ hard, and soon Sigrun regretted those words. There was no path, just a slope full of loose rocks that threatened to make them slip and fall. It took half an hour to even get near the ship. The wind was pushing harder, turning the waves into great walls of water that crashed violently against the hull. Sigrun and Eike were already soaked from the spray while they advanced, bowed under their capes. Bjorn was in a similar state, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“Not boring, right?” Eike asked, hands on her knees, once they paused after the descent.

“Yeah, and I always say that nothing special happens around here. Must admit it was harder than I thought, but at least we’ll have something better to tell back home besides killing one jumper.”

“Only one jumper is good news.” Bjorn said. He didn’t look tired at all.

“You mean this area is getting safer? Yes, that’s probably right. Let’s keep our eyes open anyway.” Sigrun turned to the wreck, trying to find a way in.

Upon closer inspection, the ship seemed much bigger, and in much worse condition. The hull was fractured in 3 parts, practically ready to break apart, there were lots of fissures and small holes, but no visible way inside. Most of it was still surrounded by water, and Sigrun had no intention of getting even more wet. They went around to reach the stern, which was partially over solid ground, only to discover that a good part of it was a large opening, clearly designed to hold smaller boats. As if to confirm that, a small hull, turned upside down was visible inside.

“So, what is this thing? Some kind of mothership?” Sigrun asked.

“Perhaps they carried boats to move troops through rivers and canals, or for rescue missions. Who knows? What matters is that we have our way inside.” Eike grabbed a thick mooring chain that dangled from a capstan, checked to see if it was firmly secured and started climbing.

They entered the ship. Water dripped from many places. Everything was tilted, turning the floors into slippery surfaces, and waves kept crashing and making the whole thing oscillate over the rocks, with pieces falling and the frightening sound of steel under strain.

At the end of the boatyard there was a large steel door covered in rust, much like everything else. Bjorn found a steel bar to use as lever and managed, with great effort, to wrench it open. Hinges screamed, but the sound was muffled by all the surrounding noise.

“Seems we don’t have to worry about making too much noise.” Eike noted.

“But we won’t be able to hear anything coming. So, eyes open and stay alert.” Sigrun removed her pistol from its holster.

They went into the bowels of the ship, opening heavy doors and trying not to hit bulkheads, tubes or dangling cables. The lower level was very dark, making their flashlights indispensable. It was all rather unsettling, and Sigrun was worried, imagining that something could try to ambush then. It reminded her of that big building in Copenhagen, years ago. She wished she had a cat, or a mage, with her.

They reached an upper deck and finally had some light. After walking by a few empty rooms Sigrun found the infirmary. Unlike Copenhagen, there were no human or troll remains. It looked like most supplies were depleted, but they still managed to find some scissors and scalpels, perfectly preserved in small plastic bags. Very useful things that would make any doctor happy.

“It’s amazing how much they had, isn’t it?” Eike said. “This room probably had drawers filled with supplies that would put our hospitals to shame.” The beam of her flashlight shone through a large glass pane to reveal a room filled with equipment. “look! A surgery room, with all of those machines! If we had time we could try to salvage something…”

Sigrun was already at the infirmary door, ready to leave. “Yes, it _would_ be great to have time, and people to help us carry everything. But we really have to go now.”

They went ahead, through corridors and stairways. Passing through the first large fracture was hard. They had to jump over the breach, and the floor on each side rose at different levels and angles. Falling meant being impaled in broken steel rods. Sigrun was happy to have Bjorn with them. He was more agile than his size might imply, and jumped over easily to the other side, quickly offering his hand to help her and Eike.

The following section was less tilted, which made walking much easier. While they passed by many empty rooms, as well as others filled with old and rusty things, they had little luck finding anything useful, until they stumbled into the Armory.

Sigrun took a first look and was fast delighted. It was clearly not fully stocked, but along the well-organized shelves there were many pistols, rifles, machine-guns, boxes full of mines and grenades, even rocket launchers. She wondered if anything would even work after all these years. There was no way to be sure, but she was itching to take all of it anyway.

“I told you it’d be worth the effort, didn’t I?” Sigrun said, taking a nice sniper rifle from the wall. “You guessed well. This ship must have carried troops. Sailors wouldn’t use all this stuff.”

“The problem is the weight, Sigrun. There’s only 3 of us...” Eike watched as Bjorn easily took a heavy machine-gun from a shelf. “Ok, maybe make that four. Anyway, it’s a lot of weight, a hard climb and a long way home. We have to make some options. I say we carry the grenades and mines. I’m pretty sure those will work. The rest of it… I don’t know, after all this time.”

“I wanted one of these.” Sigrun replied, pointing at a rocket launcher. “I bet this thing could take down a giant with a single shot.”

“Yeah, if it doesn’t blow your face off!” Eike said, while taking one of the large tubes from the shelf. “And look at how heavy this is! We can carry one each, tops… and Bjorn could carry two. Does that mean we leave the rest? What if they don’t even work?”

“Right, right. But we should come back tomorrow with more people.”

Eike looked at her. “You can talk with the others when we’re back home, but this won’t be here tomorrow. Not with the storm. The ship might break, turn upside down and flood this room.”

“Fine, you win. Let’s take the grenades and mines.” Sigrun said, opening her backpack. “And look for explosives. Those old-time guys knew how to make a big boom.”

“Would you like me to look for light-swords too?”

Sigrun smirked. She knew why Eike was teasing her. They’d recently had a funny after dinner discussion in Eike’s house, with Rilke, the village Skald, about things from the old world. At some point Sigrun said that she would love to see one of the light-swords from the old pictures. Rilke insisted that those were just fiction. Sigrun argued that she had seen many derelict flying machines and that if they existed then so could light-swords, and so on… It had been a good night. Sigrun was still unconvinced, hoping that some day she would find one of those things and prove that Rilke wasn’t always right like everybody seemed to think.

She decided to ride the wave. “Yes, please check for light-swords, and don’t forget to keep an eye on their batteries. I’m sure those things need a lot of juice.”

They went on, gathering things. Sigrun managed to collect two pistols and the optics for a sniper rifle, all in sealed cases, looking brand new. Eike found boxes of grenades and mines, and Bjorn got some bigger weapons that used the same ammo they had in their rifles. The ship kept bouncing and making noises while they decided what to carry and divided the weight between their backpacks and pockets. Eike wanted to head straight out, but Sigrun insisted. “Just a little more. Let’s move up. I’d like to check the bridge.”

They passed another breach to the aft part of the ship. This section was even more tilted than the first one. Some debris blocked the corridor, but they found a staircase and climbed to the next deck, where they finally found some corpses in a chamber filled with bunks. Eike cautiously examined then. “Well preserved, another thing to support our locked-in-ice theory. And no signs of the Rash.”

Sigrun was about to tell Eike that it was time to go when she saw movement. Instead of talking she made a gesture to Eike and Bjorn, and they advanced slowly, with their guns ready. Sigrun passed through a door and entered a larger cabin. It looked like the captain’s, with maps on a wall, two chairs and a desk. A large broken window let the frigid wind in. A large black bird, a raven or crown, was perched at the frame.

“So it was you, little one?” Sigrun asked, while checking for small vermin beasts. She didn’t know why, but she felt watched by the bird. Had it been a seagull she’d think that the crazy sentinel mage from Finland had somehow found her.

“Talking to birds, Sig?” Eike was standing at the door. It still sounded funny to be called that. Eike didn’t like strangers, and for many weeks after Mikkel and Sigrun arrived she was barely polite. It took time to gain her trust but they had slowly become good friends.

“I think this is the captain’s cabin. Just let me take a look. You and Bjorn go ahead down this corridor and try to find the bridge.”

“Ok. Be careful.”

Sigrun noticed a closed bookcase that reminded her, again, of that crazy expedition in Copenhagen. She smiled. Rilke would be delighted to see new books, and, most importantly, they seemed to be in good shape, so would be worth a lot. “Looks like our little expedition suddenly became very valuable.” She spoke to herself.

The titles, however, were in some language that she couldn’t read, and there was no way to carry all of that. She discarded some weight, since each book was worth more than a dozen mines, and selected the best-looking ones, along with some maps. Maps from the old world were great, and these had some annotations that could mean useful information. She folded then carefully and finished stuffing her backpack, which was bursting at the seams.

Sigrun was ready to go out when she noticed the bird again. It was now perched on top of a glass box fixed to the wall. Inside it there was a strange sword, slightly curved, on a nice leather sheath. She always considered swords unpractical, glorified knifes, but was sure that Mikkel would love that one. The bird escaped fast, back to the window frame, while Sigrun fumbled with the box’ latches. She took the sword and unsheathed the long blade. A beauty, looking new even after all those years.

“Well, _you_ are no light-sword, but will definitely make a great gift” She returned the blade to its sheath, fixed it on her back and went looking for Eike and Bjorn.

They were already on the bridge. The room was circled in windows, most of which were broken. It was packed with radios, machines and strange electronic stuff, but it was all old and rusted, useless. There was only one skeleton here, sat on a big chair in the middle.

“Looks like we found the captain.” Eike was pointing to a navy cap and what remained of a uniform. “I’ve heard that the captain is supposed to be the last to abandon ship. This one took it seriously. However, I see no signs of the Rash. Seems that he, or she, just died in the chair.”

“Maybe they were at sea when it all happened, too far out from everything, and weren’t exposed, or maybe they just threw anyone infected overboard.” Sigrun replied while opening cabinets in search of anything useful. She found a nice monocular, a working compass and a box of pencils. She approached Bjorn. “Could you carry then? Rilke will love these.”

“Sure, commander.” He opened two of the side pockets on his pants.

“Great. Now let’s go before the storm catches us.”

They were about to leave the bridge when a bigger wave hit. There was a loud ripping sound as the whole room turned sideways. The floor rose almost vertically, and debris started cascading over them. Bjorn held onto a console and caught Eike just as she was about to fall. Sigrun’s fingers scrambled for a grip on a couple shelves that, mere seconds earlier, had been at her side but were now decidedly beneath her. She shouted. “Are you ok?”

“We are, commander.” Bjorn replied as he managed to hoist Eike up towards the broken windows, which she started to use as steps to climb down. She pointed to the starboard windows, which were just over the rocks. “We can go outside this way!” Bjorn started to follow her.

Sigrun found her way down, jumping from a safe spot to the next. They were lucky. There was a large hole in what had previously been the roof of the bridge, and they could jump onto a flat rock.

Sigrun could hardly believe that they made it outside, alive and relatively unharmed, except for a few cuts. The backpacks and weapons were in good shape too. “We made it! That was close!”

“Way close!” Eike replied, flashing a wry smile.

“At least we didn’t have to walk all the way back.” Bjorn added. “Things could have got complicated had we been deep inside when that thing turned.”

Sigrun had never heard so many words from him. “Well, looks like it wasn’t our time quite yet. Now we ought to get as far as possible, before the next big wave makes this thing topple over us.” As if to emphasize her words a large antenna hit the ground a few meters away, making them run for the base of the cliff.

The weather was awful, dark clouds filling the sky, the wind howling furiously as it passed through the many holes in the ship. They started climbing, and Sigrun was glad there was still some daylight. They were halfway to the top when the violent crash of a wave, followed by the resounding wail of metal giving under pressure, made them look back and watch as the ship split in three.

“Well, at least we got some stuff.” Sigrun spoke louder so she could make herself heard over the wind. “I hope those old things are worth the cold!” Then she remembered the books in her backpack and smiled.

“At least we won’t have to come back tomorrow!” Eike replied, eyes never straying from the slope.

She was just above Sigrun. Eike reminded her of Emil. Both blondes, with a similar haircut, and around the same height. But Eike’s hair lacked those peculiar sparkles that Emil’s sometimes had… She wondered where he was, and Lalli, and Reynir, who kept their cat. Then her thoughts strayed to Mikkel and how much she would love to feel his warm embrace. Sigrun pushed harder, catching up with Eike as she reached the hilltop. Bjorn, much heavier, took a few minutes more to arrive.

The rain had paused, but the cold wind remained. Sigrun was tired, hungry and would love to have a nice crackling fire, but it’d be extremely hard to get one going. At least they had some rocks to sit on. “Let’s rest a little and eat something.”

* * *

They began the long trek back to the village.

The landscape was oddly beautiful. Light from the sunset peeked through the grey clouds, painting spots of hot colour. The lightning was intense, and thunder rolled on, progressively closer and louder. The wind spat droplets of fresh water on Sigrun’s face. She was soaked, still had hours to walk in the dark under a raging storm and all she could think about was the beautiful landscape. She wondered if Mikkel’s care was turning her soft.

Then she spotted two dark points coming from South towards her. She took the binoculars and definitely didn’t like what she saw.

The points had legs, and too many of them. They also had something over their backs. Emil’s description of the dusklings that stalked him and Lalli came to mind. Those critters had some protection from the sun that allowed them to hunt in broad daylight. Eike and Bjorn were already on her side, weapons raised.

“What are they?” Eike asked.

“Nothing good. And now I see one more, it’s moving fast!”

“Do we shoot, run or follow the first rule?” Bjorn asked.

Sigrun pondered for a second. She would love to stand still and stay silent, hoping those things would just ignore them, but the beasts were coming right at their position, and they moved really fast. Staying silent or outrunning them wasn’t an option. “We shoot.”

They waited while the beasts approached. Six-legged, short tailed, big mouthed. There was something wolfish about them. She’d seen a real wolf once and recalled from the stories that wolfs hunted in packs. Scanning the horizon, she found three more, far behind. She didn’t like it. There was no cover, no high ground to take.

Eike was the first to shoot. At the third round she caught one of the beasts right in the head. But the others were approaching fast. Sigrun fired twice but just barely managed to hit a leg. Not much when the thing’s got six. She switched to short bursts and managed to put down the beast. The third was too near, but Bjorn got it. This one fell just a few meters ahead of them.

Seeing the beast up close was even worse. It was ugly, but no one would expect a beautiful beast. The problem was the protection they saw before. It was made of some kind of crudely stitched canvas and fixed with rough straps. Sigrun could hardly believe her eyes. She’d never heard about anything like that.

“How can that be?” Eike asked while reloading.

“Not a clue, but there’s no time for thinking. We need to find a better place before the rest arrive.”

Bjorn had clearly thought the same and was pointing towards some rocks. “Commander, there! Some cover!”

“Better than being out in the open. Follow me!” Sigrun started to run.

They barely made it there in time to fight the second wave of beasts. There were four this time. They picked their targets and killed three of them, but the fourth was agile and avoided their bullets… and then exploded, pieces scattering everywhere.

“It looks like these grenades still work well!” Eike said, passing three of them to Sigrun.

“How did you know it would work?”

“I didn’t. But our ammo won’t last forever, and there’s more coming.”

Sigrun checked with the binoculars. She could see more, maybe half a dozen, but there was something else, something that hadn’t been there moments ago. The bad weather didn’t help, but there was a large form, like a boulder sustained by uneven stone pillars, details obscured by the rain. She could tell, however, that those pillars moved, albeit slowly. “Yes, I see six, and a giant, far away, at two o’clock. It’s slow, but very big.”

Bjorn was inspecting the machine-gun he’d saved from the ship. “If I had more ammo… But all I have is one clip.”

Eike asked for the binoculars and watched for a moment. “A giant with pets? Never heard ‘bout that! It seems like the big guy’s also got some protection from the sun… I see something like large pieces of cloth, flapping in the wind.”

“A giant that size is bad news. A giant smart enough to hunt together with beasts _and_ make protections from the sun is pretty damn scary.”

Bjorn approached Sigrun. “Commander, we should try to escape before it arrives.”

Eike whirled on them. “He’s right, we can’t let ourselves be cornered. We should try to run.”

“Those beasts are faster than us. We would be outrun.”

“Then one of us must delay them.” Eike said that like she was telling Sigrun they were out of bread, no tension whatsoever on her voice. But Sigrun knew there was a high chance that whoever stayed wouldn’t be coming back. She also knew that Eike had two sons waiting for her.

“You two. Go. Now!” Sigrun went for her best _commander voice_.

“I’d never leave you here!”

“Look Eike, we’re friends, but I call the shots and I’m ordering you two to _go_. Bjorn, before you say anything, I need you to go with her because together you stand a much better chance of reaching the village. I’ll find a way out of this and meet you there.” Eike still wouldn’t budge. Sigrun insisted in the only way she could. “Nerid and Nils are waiting for you.”

Eike’s eyes widened when she heard the names of her children. She glanced down, then back at Sigrun. “Thank you.”

“Thank me by running as fast as you can, and don´t look back. Tell Mikkel that I love him… and that I’m very sorry to… miss the special dinner he was preparing for today.”

Eike nodded. She passed a belt with grenades to Sigrun. “Take these. They’ll help… if they work.”

“There’s one more thing I need you to tell Mikkel.”

“Go on.”

“Tell him that I will miss dinner, but he better have my breakfast ready!”

* * *

Eike and Bjorn departed, running North to get around their foes before turning East towards the village. Now it was up to Sigrun to capture their attention. She decided that throwing grenades would be a good tactic, and so she alternated between two or three shots and a grenade.

Despite the storm and two failed grenades, the plan worked. Initially, the three closest beasts had split, two of them going after Eike and Bjorn, but the noise made them all converge on Sigrun.

She put one down after a few shots, and then managed to hit another with a grenade. The explosion blew it into two halves that, for a short time, still tried to scramble in her direction. She still had the time to put some bullets in the third before it jumped on her, all claws and teeth.

Sigrun grabbed her knife while impaling the beast with the bayonet. It managed to sink three claws in her arm and its middle legs kicked at her thigh. She ignored the pain and sunk her knife deep in the beast’s head, killing it instantly.

She freed both bayonet and knife, and then looked over her wounds. There was blood, but nothing too serious. Two more beasts were coming, and behind them even more. Sigrun retreated to a rocky outcrop. It didn’t offer much cover, but at least they only had one side to attack from. She put her backpack down next to the rocks, to avoid being hindered, and very quickly realized that she had trapped herself.

The outcrop was nearly at the edge of a cliff. There was nowhere to go other than the direction the beasts were coming from. To make things worse her ammo was running short. She only had a half-empty clip, a full one, and 2 grenades. After those she would have to resort to the pistol, and then make do with the bayonet and knife. Sigrun had to make every bullet count, so she waited for them to come closer.

The incoming beasts ran separately, meaning Sigrun couldn’t hope to hit both with a grenade. She threw it anyway. The explosion ripped two legs out of one and stunned the other, but they both kept coming. The first took all that remained of her clip to go down.

She had to reload, but there was no time. The missing legs kept the wounded beast from jumping, so It approached her slowly, mouth open, sluggish blood drooling down its jaws. Sigrun pointed the bayonet, but instead of attacking directly it shoved the weapon aside, throwing her out of balance, and then managed to close its maws over it. Sigrun felt a tooth piercing her hand and plunged the knife into the beast’s eye. It clamped down harder, forcing her to open the hand and she drove the knife further, until the beast went limp and fell over her, knocking the weapon away.

Sigrun looked on with dismay as the rifle tumbled over the edge and rolled down the cliff. She shoved the beast’s body aside and inspected her empty hand, covered in blood. At least she could move it, so no big damage, but her main weapon was lost and there were still 2 or 3 beasts coming in a couple of minutes. She had to deal with them before the giant came any closer.

For a moment her thoughts raced back home. Mikkel would be waiting, worried. Sweet Mikkel, with his keen sense to sooth her moments of fury… The last two and a half years had been great. He even talked about kids, and Sigrun surprised herself by actually considering it. Now she wasn’t sure if there would be a chance to tell him…

Sigrun pushed those heavy thoughts away. It wasn’t her first time in a complicated situation, and she’d managed to make her own luck so far.

* * *

The storm was fully over Sigrun now, lightning and thunder all around, like the end of the world. “Well, gods, if you want to help this is the right time!” She spoke loudly and aimed the pistol, waiting.

A beast approached and she fired, hitting twice. To her surprise it turned to retreat. She tried to finish it, but the pistol jammed on the next shot. She thought, while trying to unblock it with no success, that maybe the gods were against her after all. She knew the beast was coming back, and soon spotted an approaching shadow through the rain. There was little time to prepare.

Sigrun took the sword in one hand, and the knife in the other. “Let’s see if this thing works!” She would do her best, and if things took a turn for the worst, she’d make sure it‘d be worthy of a seat in Valhalla, and they better have lots of ale!

She stepped forward to get more space to move and noticed a black bird, perched on the rocks. It looked a lot like the one she saw at the ship. “You again? Looking for food? Wrong place. I won’t let those beasts win!”

“I know, Sigrun.”

For a moment she was stunned. She wasn’t particularly easy to surprise, but then again, she’d never seen a talking bird. Things got even stranger once she saw the old man behind the bird. Long coat, large hat, and a pole on his hand. She could swear there was no one there just now.

“Who are you? How can you be here?”

“I need to speak with you.” Said the man. His voice was strong and loud, easily heard over the wailing and raging of the storm.

Until Sigrun realized that _there_ _was no noise_. She looked around. Clouds, rain, beast, even the lightning streaking half across the sky over her head. Everything was eerily still, frozen like a picture.

“What’s happening? How’s this…how can it…?”

“I need a little time to talk to you, Sigrun, to ask for your help.”

She looked again at the beast. It was airborne, motionless. “I don’t know what’s going on, old man, but as you can see,” She pointed at the immobilized beast. “I am _not _in a good position to help _anyone_ right now. There’s at least three beasts coming, and a giant after them!” She showed him the weapons in her hands. “I lost my guns, and all I have to face them are these knifes and a grenade that might not even work.”

“This is _not_ a knife.” He said, pointing at her sword. He extended his hand, and it flew from her grip to stand still in the air, floating between him and an open-mouthed Sigrun, who was _definitely _beginning to doubt her sanity.

“This is a _superb_ weapon, child. I can see its story.” His eyes held a strange glint. “A weapon made centuries ago, far away, on the other side of the world. Its maker was an excellent smith, a true master, that learned the craft from his father and grandfather. This sword was his best work, and his greatest pride. This master decided to gift it to his lord, so he could better protect his people. Then…”

Sigrun cut him off. “I’m no child, old man, and I’ll be happy to hear your story _after_ we defeat those beasts. I don’t know what trick you’re using to stop everything, but we should use it to get ready!” She eyed the pole and noticed it had a sharp metal point. “A spear, right? Can you use it, or is it just to help you walk?”

“It is true that I’m old, very old, Sigrun Eide, daughter of Asbjørn and Solveig. I am, therefore, correct to compare you to a child.”

“Wait… How do you know my name? And my parents? Are you from Dalsnes?”

“Yes, I know a bit about you, and I do know who your parents are. But no, I’m definitely not from Dalsnes. Now, as I was saying, this sword was used by an honourable and courageous man. He fought well to protect his people and met a noble death in battle. He earned the admiration of his enemies, that respectfully returned the sword to his family, where it stayed, never again used, until it got to its last owner.”

“You mean… the captain?”

“Yes. She had a deep sense of honour too. During the Great Fall she did her best and helped many people, but her ship was running out of supplies and fuel. She ordered that the remaining crew return to their land on a smaller boat, but already knew she had no land nor family to go back to. Then she steered the ship into the ice, hoping to save it so, someday, it could be useful again.”

“And it just sank against the rocks. Not very useful.” Sigrun said, looking down. She could see the wreck down below. A frozen wave was battering the broken hull, a million droplets stagnant in the air like some classic painting.

“It was useful. It brought this weapon to us.”

“To fight like a Viking, die in battle and sit in Valhalla? I’m tired of talking, old man, and I’m tired of tricks! You want to help me or what? Let’s bury those things!”

“I don’t do tricks, Sigrun. I am not Loki.”

“Loki? What are you saying? And how do you know so many things?”

The man stepped towards her and stood tall, with the spear in his hand. The bird jumped from the rocks onto his shoulder. “You are a smart woman, Sigrun. Can’t you figure?”

Sigrun’s eyes went wide. “You’re kidding me, right? I must be hallucinating…far too much pressure…” But even as she said it something deep inside her understood that it was all true, however impossible it seemed. “Are you telling me that you are… Odin?”

“Now that’s better!” He smiled. “I was starting to doubt my judgment.”

For a moment Sigrun forgot she was in the middle of a fight. She stared at the man who just claimed to be a god. “But… shouldn’t there be _two_ ravens? And _one_ eye?”

“The eye is just a metaphor, child. Those who wrote the myths felt they should emphasize the value of wisdom. But you are correct about the birds.” He gestured to the raven. “This is Munin, you met him earlier today. Hugin is not here. She went away to scout Midgard, to uncover more about this madness, but she hasn’t returned yet. I fear for her.”

Sigrun was, for the first time since she could recall, speechless. Gods don’t just show up, neither do they usually talk to mortals. Then something dark occurred to her, and she asked. “So, that’s it? My time has come?”

“Do I look like a Valkyrie to you?” Odin stroked his long beard. “_Your time_ shall be up to _your_ actions. It may be soon, or it may not. Now, as I said before, I require your help.”

“You? A _god_ need _my _help?”

“Thor is away, fighting this war in another realm. I need a true, passionate warrior to fight in his place, and I want you to do it. Will you, Sigrun?”

“Wait! You want me to fight in a war? In _Thor’s_ place? _Me_?” She was incredulous. “Look, I know I’m good, but so are many others…”

He raised his hand to stop her. “You remind me of my son, and not just for his hair. His temper, his recklessness... I chose you, and I will ask once more. Do you wish to fight, to help me defend Midgard?”

“What happens if I say yes?” Sigrun was no fool and there was always a price to pay in any story where a mere mortal strikes a deal with a god.

“You will hold Thor’s power in Midgard, and the responsibility of safeguarding it.” He took the sword from where it still hovered. “Since I have no weapon like Mjolnir, you shall use this sword to focus that power. It will obey you and always come to your hand when summoned. You will have to fight and win many battles until we triumph in this war, or until you lose and die. However, should we fall there will be no comfortable rest in Valhalla. There will be no safe place, and…”

Sigrun cut him short. “Fine I’ll do it! Let’s stop talking and start killing monsters!” Then she realized that she'd just interrupted a god, again. She wondered if he’d be angry and turn her into something nasty.

“Why, see? You _are_ just like Thor!” The sword left Odin’s hand and glided through the air towards her. “Take it. It is yours now.”

The sword was glowing, and the smell of electricity filled the air. Sigrun took it.

She turned the sword, slowly. Both sides of the blade were now covered in runes, ridges masterfully carved into the metal. Those also seemed to glow when Sigrun tried to read them, first without success, but then the symbols started to make sense. They said things like Honour and Storm. She could see that there was more, but she couldn’t understand it. There were also smatterings of colour added over the steely grey. They shifted as she moved and angled the sword, alternating between shades of purple and yellow.

She remembered. “Wait. Don’t I need to... sign with my blood somewhere? I’ve heard that gods always want blood.”

Odin regarded her with a stern look. “Yes. I’m sorry to say so, but you must now use the sword to cut your small finger and then sign your name on the blade with it.”

She looked at the sword and at her other hand, a mix of confusion and surprise on her face.

“My, you should see your face, Sigrun! Who gave you _that_ idea?”

Sigrun gave an audible sigh of relief and lowered her hand.

“Now let’s go back to what matters. It needs a name.” Odin continued. “Great weapons have names, like Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, or my spear, Gungnir. Hm… I shall name this sword Lyn, just as the lightning you will command.”

While she held the sword, Sigrun could tell that it wasn’t the only thing that changed. She felt… different, rested, full of strength… ready for anything. “What’s happening?” She asked the god.

He was looking at her amusedly, like he knew exactly what she was felling. “Remember, the sword is just a tool. The power is inside you.” The raven left its perch on his shoulder. “Now I will leave. And you will fight.”

“Wait! Don’t leave! I know nothing about this… power, or how to use it! I’ve never even used a sword in combat, only knifes. You’re just going to leave me here to fight alone against those beasts and a giant?”

“How could I deny you this chance to prove your worth, Sigrun? Don’t worry about your power. Just let things flow and follow your instincts, as you’ve always done. And don’t worry about the sword either. It knows how to fight.” He aimed his spear and threw it with ease at the closest beast.

Everything shifted back into motion. The wind, the storm’s roar, the lightning. Sigrun turned just in time to see the spear fly with amazing speed and pierce through the beast, killing it instantly. She looked back at Odin to see Gungnir returning to his hand. He turned away from her. “See? A little help for the start. Now it’s your turn.” She blinked, and he wasn’t there anymore.

* * *

Sigrun took a deep breath, crouched, and made herself ready for the three coming beasts. After her talk with Odin she could see their placements much clearly, even in the darkest moments between bolts of lightning.

The next beast was the size of a bear. It roared and gnashed its uneven teeth as it ran towards her. She didn’t know what to do, so she tried to raise the sword and swung, jumping out of the beast’s way. To her surprise the movement flowed naturally. Lyn glowed brighter as it sliced through the beast’s neck effortlessly, severing the head as if it were warm butter.

Head and body rolled down the cliff as Sigrun stepped aside, sword already pointed at another, even larger, beast. The thing rose up on its four hind legs and tried to grasp at her. She ducked and rolled easily bellow its reach and slashed horizontally. The beast fell, cut in two.

It was actually going well, and she was starting to enjoy it. Sigrun just needed to locate the third beast, kill it and run before the giant came any closer. That’s when she felt the air get knocked out of her sideways and she was thrown towards the edge of the cliff. The last beast had somehow managed to flank and ram into her. She turned mid-air and sank Lyn’s full length into the beast’s belly, but the momentum was too big and pushed them both into the void.

Mikkel’s face flashed in Sigrun’s mind as she fell towards the fast-approaching rocks many meters below. She somehow managed to disentangle herself from the beast and twisted to position her feet for landing, knowing it was impossible to survive such a fall.

The impact was harsh, but Sigrun felt no pain. “Maybe that’s how you feel when you die”, she spoke to herself as she noticed the beast that pushed her, turned into a lump of meat and mangled, broken bones, just a few meters away. She looked down in fear, fully expecting to see her own dead body.

Cold water covered her feet. Her boots were torn to pieces from the impact, but her feet seemed to be in good shape. The rest of her showed no damage, nothing but the wounds from the previous fight.

Sigrun looked around. She was standing on a beach, turned by the storm into a narrow strip of sand between the slope and the crashing waves. There was a shallow crater on the sand, filled by the water, and she stood in the middle of it.

“Wow! Now I’m _really_ liking it!” She felt great. She could see better and hear better too. She could locate, despite the storm, birds nested in the rocks, the fall of small rocks dislodged by the wind. Even the salted smell of the sea seemed more intense. She could _feel_ the raw power of the elemental violence around her, and it was beautiful.

Lyn was humming in her grasp. Sigrun smiled and extended the sword to the sky. The lightning bolt met it like an answer. She considered for a second that any normal person would have been turned to ash if hit directly like that. Then she remembered Odin’s words about the power of Thor and her smile widened.

She heard heavy thumps coming from above the cliff, looked up and saw the giant. Her smile vanished, and the good mood was over.

The thing was looking down at her. It was even uglier than she thought. Three heads, with several eyes each, and an elongated body, with many legs and arms of different sizes and shapes. Horns and bonny spikes sprouted from its back and sides. Sigrun could see a large number of cloths, stitched together like the ones over the beasts and attached to the horns. She wondered if it’d made those on its own. It was disturbing to admit the existence of a smart giant. Those things were already too dangerous when relatively dumb.

There was more though, like enormous bags attached to the giant’s sides. She squinted to take a better look, and instantly wished she hadn’t. The bags were partially covered with bones and skulls, many skulls, mostly human, like macabre decorations. Small bones perforated the stained tissue. She guessed the bags served to carry the monster’s food.

“You killed our dogs. You must pay”

The giant used all three heads to speak, raising a strange and dissonant choir, loud enough to be heard clearly over the wind. She knew of giants talking, but only loose, jumbled words. Mages had also mentioned the strange speech that only they could hear. Regardless, this one was speaking almost normally.

Sigrun scanned the area. She was surrounded by the stormy sea. Big waves and rocks ruled out swimming. The only way out was scaling the cliffs, which only seemed doable at the far end of the beach. She had to get there, climb and find a way to escape that thing, or kill it.

“Join us, we forgive you. Or die.”

She asked herself how someone could join a giant just like that, and then she heard another voice, a faint one, coming from one of the bags. Sigrun had heard those strange sounds many times before. There was a troll in the bag, she was sure, and then she understood. The giant captured the troll and was keeping it close until they somehow became entangled. Maybe it even captured people, infected them and waited to see the result. Another nightmarish thought to join her ever growing collection.

Sigrun didn’t know what to say or do. Talking to it was useless, and climbing would leave her far too exposed and vulnerable. But the giant wasn’t in the mood for waiting. It started to come down the slope like a cat, putting its front legs ahead while the back supported the weigh. But it was no cat, it was like a train-sized bear. Its massive feet pushed down big chunks of rock and started to slide slowly. At first it looked like the giant would make a controlled descent, but it was too big, too heavy. More rocks fell, a small avalanche, and the thing came down, landing awkwardly on the beach.

Now Sigrun was trapped, the giant blocking the only way out. There was little space to fight and no time to waste. She had to attack while it was still finding its footing, recovering from the fall. She threw her last grenade, but it flew so fast and high that it soared right over the giant. It was still in the air when it exploded over the sea.

“Like to throw, small one? We show how!” Said the giant as it took a large boulder, surely heavy as a person, and launched it fast in her direction.

She dodged it with ease and ran straight to the monster. Sigrun knew there was no easy way to kill something that size. She could try to slip between the legs while dealing some damage, and then climb the cliff while it tried to turn in the small space between rocks and sea. With some luck the wounds would prevent it from going up, making her job much easier.

But this giant had at least eight arms, and they were all trying to catch her. She dodged one, jumped over another, always cutting and slicing with her sword. The giant’s blood gushed from many places, but it showed no pain. Only when Sigrun cut off one arm did she hear a scream.

Massive legs, wide as tree trunks, tried to crush her. Sigrun whirled past them. A part of her was amazed by that. She was good, but her normal self wasn’t anywhere near that fast or strong. That aberration probably would have crushed her in seconds.

She kept chopping while attempting to cross under the thing and was pleased to hear one enormous leg snap after her sword cut deep, sectioning flesh and bone. The giant toppled, and she rolled to the opposite side, slashing again and again at its belly.

“You annoying little bug, Sigrun!”

That caught her attention. It was the second time in the same day that her name was unexpectedly called.

It was a painful mistake, she realized, when the air was knocked out of her by one enormous hand, clenched around her torso and arms. Her sword fell on the wet sand as the giant lifted her. Sigrun felt the increasing pressure, each giant finger as thick as her leg. Anyone would have broken ribs at this point. Anyone but her.

“You strong. Your friend screamed.”

Sigrun wanted to bang her head on something. When did she get stupid enough to slow down just because someone called out her name? She couldn’t, however, stop herself from asking. “My friend?”

The giant brought her closer to one of its heads. Five eyes, red with blood, looked at her. Small maggots got in and out and crawled over the thing’s skin. The pungent smell of its breath when it spoke was unbearable. “Young man, Agnar, running East.”

Her heart skipped a beat. The giant had caught Agnar! “What did you do to him?”

“First, we ask questions. But no answers.” A pointy tongue slithered out and licked her face. It was disgusting, and the giant seemed to think so too. “Argh! Taste bad! You like him, cannot join us. Sad, very sad.”

Sigrun listened on with dismay. “And what?”.

“We promised fast death. Still no answers. We squeezed more. Broken bones. Bad. Broken bones almost useless. We asked his name, his captain name, how many people in village… We like to know things. He stubborn, not speak about village. He told your group live alone, was just hunting, found a boat. Little smart bug, wanted to distract, push us away from village.”

Her heart sank. The giant knew about the village! Surely Agnar did the best he could, but somehow the thing knew and, even without pets, could completely wreck the place. A place where several non-immune people lived, even some children…

This giant seemed to like talking. “We know where houses are, we see fumes, far away. We decided ship first, village later. Ships always have useful stuff, like cloths.”

“And after that, what happened to my friend?” Sigrun fury was growing inside her. Sadly, she was sure what the answer would be, but she had to buy some time to find a way out of the giant’s crushing embrace. Extending the conversation seemed like as good a way as any.

“Dead. We squeeze too much! Taste bad just like you, no good food. We sure much better food in village.”

Sigrun was so furious she couldn’t find any words.

“Now _Captain_, talk about village. Many people? Many guns? You answer, we kill you fast.”

Sigrun’s anger boiled. If she could just reach her sword… Then she recalled something Odin said earlier and decided to try. She shouted, as loud as she could. “Lyn! Come to me!” To her astonishment the sword did come flying to land on her open hand. With a sharp turn of wrist she slashed at the giant’s arm. The fingers slackened, and she fell onto the sand, rolling away from another massive arm that came fast for her, hitting the place she’d just stood on with a loud thump.

The giant didn’t seem to mind the blood gushing from the arm that now hung from a strip of flesh. “You pay, little rat! We leave you for end! We kill all in village, you watch!”

She tried to put some distance between the thing and herself as it advanced. There wasn’t, however, much beach left for her to retreat.

The giant went on, approaching slowly. It still bled or oozed from many places, but it didn’t seem to care. “Sure some in village will join us… Lately we got few… contributions.” It pated one bag, making the troll inside stir. “You have children? Children good!”

If the monster wanted to distract her again with words it wasn’t working. Sigrun’s extreme fury was enough to engulf everything then, and remembering Eike’s sweet children only made it stronger. She ran directly to the giant and jumped as high as she possibly could, flying over heads, tongues and arms that tried to grasp her, her sword held high with both hands.

Lyn seemed to grow impossibly bigger as forked lightning spread across the sky and converged simultaneously on the blade. She brought it down on the giant’s back, shouting all her fury.

Everything became light, brighter than the sun, coupled with a deafening thunder.

When Sigrun came back to her senses she was crouching on the sand with the sword in her hands. Straight ahead, stretching all the length of the beach until the cliff, was a narrow and deep trench. She looked around. All that remained of the giant was scattered along both sides of that scar in the form of huge blocks of charred flesh surrounded by ashes. Several bits still glowed like embers, smoking and sizzling as the rain touched then.

She stood and started to walk, slowly. The sand surrounding her was hard and strange, somehow resembling fractured glass. The clouds above had parted, like something passed between them, creating a long gash aligned with the cut in the ground. She could even see stars through the breach.

Her clothes were gone, except for the sword sheath. She was covered in a mixture of dirt, soot and dried blood, but apart from that she was naked in the cold of the night. Sigrun felt too tired to worry about that, or anything really. As she walked, part of the cliff, also cut by the trench, crumbled and tumbled into the sea. There was a heavy, vertical rain, no sign of lightning or wind.

Sigrun left behind the remains of the monster, sheathed the sword and went looking for the better place to climb, as the rain scattered the ashes.

* * *

It took a while to climb. The rocks were wet and rough, hurting her hands and feet. When Sigrun finally reached the top, she sat at the edge for a while, gazing at the sea and the clouds, mind purposely empty, absentmindedly taking notice of birds and distant sea creatures.

Then the cold creeped up her spine and made her shudder, and Sigrun remembered that Mikkel would be worried, he’d be waiting. She searched for her backpack. It was thankfully where she left it, next to the rocks where Odin had spoken with her. It all felt like a strange fever dream, even after everything that happened. Sadly, there was nothing in the backpack to cover herself with.

She arranged the backpack together with the sword’s sheath and walked East, towards the village. It was dark, but there was no need to worry about critters. Even with the absence of moonlight she could see well enough. Sigrun checked herself for wounds but found almost nothing. There was only a small piece of bone, or maybe a tooth, lodged in her left shoulder, but it didn’t hurt much. As she plucked it out the wound bled a little and then stopped. The remaining wounds looked sufficiently healed, including the deep cuts curtesy of the beast’s claws.

Her body showed no reason to worry, but her mind was in a state of unrest. Agnar was dead, and Sigrun really liked the boy. She had no way to know if Eike and Bjorn had made it. Beside that, she’d talked to a god, battled a giant and enlisted in some war. She could do amazing things but she didn’t know how. It was a lot for a few hours.

Another issue bothered her. However powerful she became, no war could be fought alone, and a part of her always wanted Mikkel by her side, but another feared to include him in a fight that involved terrifying giants and who knows what else.

The night had cleared, the storm was gone, and she walked for over an hour immersed in her thoughts. She reached an area of disperse rocks where it would be hard to walk, and without great care started long, previously impossible jumps over them, marvelling at her new abilities.

After the rocks she resumed walking. The strenuous movement heated her body, pushing away the cold, and for a moment she simply felt good, distracted from her worries.

“Enjoying yourself, Sigrun?” Said a voice just beside her.

She jumped to the side with Lyn somehow already in hand.

“Sorry to frighten you. Now please put it down. That’s dangerous even for a god.” Odin said with a smile.

Sigrun returned the sword to the sheath and quickly remembered that apart from it and the backpack, she was naked. She covered herself the best she could.

“You don’t have to worry about me, Sigrun. I noticed you had a… problem with your clothes, so I brought you two gifts.” He handed her a large folded cloth.

“Your last gift is wonderful, but gave me lots of trouble, noble god.” Sigrun unfolded a black hooded coat, weaved from some unknown fabric and embroidered with fine lines of silver that shone like constellations. She didn’t care much about clothing, but this one was beyond anything she’d ever seen. “Beautiful! Thanks!”

“It’s one of Frigg’s. She’d be delighted to meet you someday, and sends her compliments. This will keep you warm and dry in Winter, and fresh in Summer. Oh, the silver disappears if you are in danger, or wish to go unnoticed. It makes you almost invisible at night.”

She adjusted and secured the sheath around her waist and wrapped herself with the cape, felling instantly much more comfortable. There was a round silver brooch on the inside, with a small engraved rune. “What’s this?”

“That’s the second gift. Wearing it will protect your clothes, so they won’t be ruined when you use your power. Let’s keep going, shall we?” He started walking, and Sigrun followed. “I’ve mostly come to let you know how very proud I am of you.”

Sigrun noticed the raven, soaring high above them. “You could have helped, instead of watching and being proud, wise all-father! That thing nearly killed me a dozen times!” She pointed, angry, at Odin’s spear. “And you have that! I saw you killing that beast. We could have taken care of the giant together!” She was yelling at him now. “Why didn’t you help? Why didn’t you help Agnar? He was a good boy! I sent him away and now he’s dead!”

Odin showed no sign of being affected by her anger. “My dear, even gods can’t be everywhere. You must learn that.” He pointed at the raven. ”When Munin saw your team, you were already near the ship. When I decided it was the right time for us to meet, the giant had already caught your friend. It’s a war, Sigrun, and soldiers die in wars. I reckon you’ll be glad to learn, however, that your friend is alive.”

“Agnar is alive? How? The giant…”

“The giant wounded him greatly, but he is smart. He played dead, and the giant didn’t finish him. He managed to walk to the village, where your people are taking care of him. Before you ask, Bjorn and Eike are alive, too.”

She felt as if someone lifted a heavy blanket from her soul, a weight that had made breathing much harder. “Great! And thanks for telling me. But you didn’t answer my question. Why didn’t you help me? Was it all a test? A chance to prove myself worthy, as you said?”

“The power I gave you is great and unique. I was certain that you would be up to the task, but there are very rare occasions when I’m wrong. Now I’m sure that I chose right.”

Sigrun recognized that insisting would be pointless. “What if I hadn’t been on patrol today, or if the ship hadn’t come to our coast? How would you give me the sword and test my value?”

“If it hadn’t been today it would’ve been soon, and if there was no sword I would’ve found another weapon. But serendipity shall not be put to waste. What appears to be a coincidence sometimes has connections that are beyond understanding, even for a god.”

“Fine. I understand. It was destiny, fate or something like that. Now please tell me more about this war you keep talking about. What should I do? How do I protect Mikkel and all the others?”

Odin’s face was sad as he looked around. He opened his arms like he was showing her the whole world. “You have seen a few parts of Midgard, Sigrun. You have seen the ruins. This war has been going on for almost a hundred years, and we’ve been losing. There’s a lot more going on, not just here, but in many realms. We struggled to reach some balance, a fragile one. But the shadows spread restlessly, and there are few safe places. Even gods can’t protect all the people they care for.”

She was going to ask more, but Odin didn’t let her. “We are almost at your village. It’s time for you to rest. It would be wise not to boast about your powers and our conversations. We never know who might be listening, and it may turn this place into a target. If you care about them keep the news to yourself and a few that you trust. Soon I’ll let you know what to do next.”

“But who could be listening? No one would…” But then she remembered the Kade story, and how Ensi’s friend became an instrument in the downfall of Lalli’s village.

“I see that you understand. Oh, I almost forgot that I have one more gift. But it’s not for you!” He put a large wooden spoon on her hand. “This one is for Mikkel.”

It was an exquisite piece, with golden inlays along the handle. “Why are you giving Mikkel a spoon?”

“Munin heard that you were planning to give the sword to him as a gift, but now Lyn can’t be given. So I brought you this. Its wood came from a branch of Yggdrasil. Anything cooked with this will have great healing power, and I believe such quality will prove valuable in the near future.”

“We’ll be deep in trouble, won’t we? That’s why you’re giving me these treasures.”

“I’ve told you enough for now. I must go. Meanwhile, try to be happy, live and love. Enjoy each day, daughter.”

When she looked to the side he was there no longer. Sigrun didn’t know what to think about all of that, so she kept walking. She stopped on the top of a hill when the small island of light that was her village became visible in the middle of the darkness.

Then she understood part of what Odin meant. They, all of humanity, were exactly that. A small cluster of light surrounded by the darkness of night. She didn’t sign up for a war a few hours ago, it’s been the fight that shaped her whole life. Sigrun vowed silently to never let those lights go out.

* * *

As Sigrun approached the wooden fence, there was no sound. She could see guards, but they didn’t notice her. She could even read the plate, over the main gate, with the village’s official name, Mot, which almost nobody used.

Remembering the cape, and how she wanted, as always, to go unnoticed when walking alone out in the open, she removed the hood.

Soon, shouts could be heard, and she feared it would all end with somebody shooting her by accident. She stopped. There was movement on the watchtower, and someone spoke her name. She heard steps, followed by heavier ones. A small door opened to let Mikkel pass. He ran to her and stopped short, just two steps away, looking at her from head to toe. Sigrun could see that he was trying to gauge whether she was wounded.

“Mikkel…” She started, but couldn’t find the words.

When he seemed convinced that she wasn’t going to die in the next few seconds, he wrapped his strong arms around her and they stood there for what seemed like forever. She still couldn’t speak and didn’t want it to end. Finally, he stepped back, both hands on her shoulders.

“Are you ok?”

“Yes… Yes, I think so.” Now that she regained the ability to speak it was time for questions. First, she needed to be sure of one thing. “Look Mikkel, Agnar, I sent him back, but he... Is he still alive?”

“He’s in bad shape, with many broken bones. Many ribs, left arm, right forearm… He won’t be using that bow anytime soon, but he will survive. We don’t know how he was able to find the way in the dark. He’s also delirious, talking about a black bird that was always pushing him the right way.” She could feel weariness in his voice. “I can’t do anything more. He needs time to heal. Rilke is with him.”

“So he _did_ help, after all.”

“Who?”

“I’ll tell you later. How about Bjorn and Eike?”

“They are well, resting. Arrived about an hour ago, exhausted, but wouldn’t stop pressing us to arrange a rescue party to help you. We were setting everything up to go as soon as we had some light. I wanted to leave earlier but everybody else said it was madness to go in the dark with beasts and a giant around, and I couldn’t convince them. Sorry.” He looked down, clearly ashamed.

Sigrun felt about ready to burst with love for him. She pushed his chin up. “Hey, Look at me! I’m ok! More than that, believe me.”

“Either that or you’re the best-looking spirit in history! We were all worried before, because It was getting dark and your team was out in the open with that mad lightning storm, and then we saw a huge explosion that lighted the sky like the sun in the direction you were gone…” One of his hands caught her hair. “And Agnar arrived, alone and wounded, and then Eike, telling us that you stayed behind so she and Bjorn could escape and warn us. That you were facing many beasts and a giant all by yourself... What happened? And where did you find this strange cape?”

“Well, it’s a long story.” Sigrun smiled. “I’m really relieved that everyone survived! And I have a gift to you!” She reached inside the cape and gave him the spoon.

Mikkel looked at it, surprised. “A spoon? Thanks.” She was delighted by the confusion on his face. He looked closely at it. ”Truly beautiful. You found it on the ship?”

“I’ll tell you everything later, alright? I’m ok, but now I really need a warm bath, and… Look, I know it’s way too early, but I’m _hungry_! Could I have my breakfast?”

“Well, Eike mentioned that part, too.” Sigrun could sense that he was now in a good mood. “I’d never risk entering your mutiny list again, my commander.” She smiled. She still kept that one-item list with her things. He leaned in closer and whispered. “Or should I say my goddess?”

Sigrun smiled. That word was saved for intimate moments, but after the recent events it acquired an unexpected additional meaning. Her smile widened as another kind of hunger sparked inside her. She remembered Odin telling her to enjoy each day and whispered back as they walked home.

“Help me with the bath. Then the food can wait while we sort out what this _goddess_ can do with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fan-made story based in the amazing work of Minna Sundberg, Stand Still Stay Silent (www.sssscomic.com) and is dedicated, naturally, to her.
> 
> Special thanks to my daughter, who agreed to proofread my work with no previous knowledge of how bad I am, and also managed to provide suggestions and unyielding support (and get herself into SSSS in the process).
> 
> Please don’t post on other sites without permission.
> 
> Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. You can reach me at [my username]@inorbit.com


End file.
